random workday thoughts

Another random thought challenge game! Today, while I’m working, I’ll try to put down thoughts that come into my head, of course, updating each time something new happens. Here we go:

  • I don’t know about you, but whenever I hear “Amazing Grace” on bagpipes it always gets a little dusty around my eyes.
  • Sign #142 I’m in the real world now: it seems like around 11:00 in the morning I start thinking about lunch. It used to be that when 11:00 rolled around, I thought about breakfast.
  • A lesson that I’ve learned three times in the past year: just when I think I know Java decently well, I find out I don’t know Java.
  • Okay, so this isn’t producing that many thoughts. That’s because I’m actually doing work. Aren’t ya proud of me?
  • One of work’s cardinal rules: if, at some point during your workday, you do not encounter a feeling of helplessness, your job’s too easy.
  • Okay, so that’s a knee-jerk reaction: today I’ve started about five different projects, and had the opportunity to complete none of them.
  • Three days, sweetheart! I can’t wait to see you!

news and notes

These two things aren’t nearly as cool as having gotten engaged, but they’re pretty nifty nonetheless.

The first is the addition of a new Java solitaire game! That’s right, kids, I’ve done it again. I call this game Sequence; it doesn’t have a common name that I know of. I learned it from a book a long time ago, but I’m not sure it’s a very common solitaire game. Nevertheless, I think you’ll find it entertaining, and a little more skill-oriented than the first Java solitaire. It was done pretty quickly after my updates to the original Java solitaire game and uses very similar code in a lot of places. Give it a try, and see what you think!

The second, geekier thing, is that pressing on… now has a live RSS feed. This may mean absolutely nothing to you, and if it doesn’t, that’s okay. Think of it as something akin to a crawler on Fox News or CNN or ESPN or whatever. Essentially, it provides a link to my most recent postings.

The really nifty thing about this is that in 1.0pr and later, you have the opportunity to create what’s called a Live Bookmark for this site. When you do this, clicking on the bookmark brings up a list of the last 10 or so entries that you can click on and go directly to the entry, instead of just taking you to the home page. It’s pretty cool because it allows you to look at just the entries you’re interested in (but you’re interested in all of my entries, right? Uh…right?). Anyway, it wasn’t that hard to add to the site; one line of HTML did the trick. And now, everyone who comes to this site who uses Firefox 1.0pr or greater (hi, me!) can use it.

the proposal

I had known how I was going to propose to the woman I was going to marry for over eight years.

When I was in 12th grade, as part of an English assignment, I wrote a short allegory describing myself as a house. Included in this house was a place that housed my hopes and dreams. But many of those dreams were locked away in boxes, to which I didn

Java Solitaire 3.1

I obviously haven’t written anything in a while, and if you are reading this, there is a pretty good chance that you know why. If you don’t, that’s okay. Just know that right now is a pretty rough time for me, but it’s a lot rougher for someone that I love very much. Maybe one of these days I’ll write more about it on this space, but this is too much of a public forum for it right now.

So, because I have needed something to keep my mind semi-occupied when I’m not at work, I decided to write a major revision of Java solitaire. The game itself hasn’t changed a whole lot, but the look and feel definitely has. If you haven’t played it in a while, give it a spin. I’d appreciate any feedback.

What follows is a list of changes that I made, if you’re interested.

Continue reading →

pros and cons

The first week went by pretty quickly once I got everything up and running. A large portion of the week was just getting a system set up to work on. However, once that was taken care of, I managed to get some work done, with the assistance of my supervisor. The project that I’m working on consists of lots of code, and even knowing where everything is will take some time. But at least I got something productive done, and that’s a good start.

I always figured that it would be nice knowing that there would be a pretty strict delineation between work and free time, and that’s been true. Of course, it’s only been one week, so who knows, but it’s been nice to know that when 5:00 comes around, you don’t have to worry about anything until the next day, or in the case of Friday, the next week. Of course, free time is smaller in quantity than it was in college, but I figure that not having the sword of Damocles above you, reminding you of everything that you could be doing, makes up for that.

The biggest drawback to being in Birmingham for me is that Kelly isn’t here. The problem with your girlfriend being in Boca Raton when you are in Birmingham, is that, well, she’s in Boca Raton and you’re in Birmingham. We haven’t seen each other in over two weeks, but it really feels like a lot more than that. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, but I think that distance plays a pretty big role in it too. Add that to the fact that Kelly’s really busy now, and the fact that I have working hours and an implied “normal” sleep schedule, and I don’t get to talk to her as much as I used to. I don’t like that so much. I’m waiting for the day when I get to come home, knowing she’ll be there.

brand new day

So, yeah, I had my first day at work today.

If you didn’t know, I made a decision (not a recent one, mind you) to get out of the Ph.D. program at Florida and find a “real world” job. I was fortunate enough to find one in Birmingham, and after a couple of weeks taking care of paperwork both here and Gainesville, this morning I started.

I am working for e-systems. You can find out more about them on their web site. My job description is J2EE programmer; this means I get paid to write code.

My first day was equal parts uneventful and…well, eventful. Our office didn’t have phone or internet service for much of the day, which made it kinda tough to get stuff done. But I learned a lot of the ropes of the application I’ll be working on; tomorrow I get to actually write some stuff. It’ll be interesting; there’s a lot of Java that it uses that I want to become more proficient in, so it’ll be good. Everyone that I’ve met thus far (I’ve met all but one person) has been really friendly and helpful, and I think we’ll all get along fine.

I know that this is a pretty generic description of what happened today, but frankly I don’t really feel like writing this right now…I’m pretty tired. I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night, so I’ll be trying to make up for it tonight.

there have been updates…

They’ve just been on the college football tradition site. For the first time in about two years, I updated the fight song site.

Actually, there have been some behind-the-scenes updates made to a few of the minor pages on this site, but nothing that really warrants mentioning on the main page.

There will be more updates to this site coming soon. I’m actually looking at putting together a new theme to the site, so keep an eye out some time soon.

step right up…

So I was just about to go to bed about 30 minutes ago, when I decided that I’d check out a web site that I hadn’t been to in a while. The webmaster put up a note about a video game conference they had been to recently, and in the midst of reading about a bunch of games that I knew I wouldn’t really be interested in, he mentioned Rollercoaster Tycoon 3.

3? I didn’t even realize that they had 3 in progress. I still had 2 on my wish list.

Now, as Kelly can certainly attest to, I loved the original RCT. I beat all the scenarios (many of which she played co-manager in 🙂 ), unlocked Mega Park, had a good old time. But when I got the new computer, I never really bothered to put any of my old games on it. Partly because of the hassle, partly to keep myself from being too distracted from my work. But recently, I pulled out my old CDs…and came this close to putting them back on.

Anyway, seeing the info this guy had on his site piqued my curiosity about what the game was going to look like, so I went to the official RCT site to get the low-down.

Oh, man. It looks awesome. 3-D graphics of everything in the park, including the peeps themselves. (They all look different now!) Rides you can test out yourself. Night-time views of your park. “Sandbox” mode for those who’d rather do that than scenarios (I fall into this category, but I really wanted Mega Park in RCT1…). Even fireworks shows that you can choreograph!

I’m not really one of those fanboy types who has to rush out and buy a game they’re interested in as soon as it comes out, especially if it doesn’t seem like much of an improvement over a predecessor (RCT2 fell into this category for me). But I make this vow here and now, for the whole reading population of pressing on (all six of you) to read…this game shall be mine. Oh, yes. A whole new generation of peeps to amuse, with my beautiful co-manager by my side.

Okay, I’ll go to bed now.

new batch!

  • I’m not a betting man or anything, but I’d like to see what Vegas makes the over/under on “Number of Joey Episodes until NBC gets desperate and has a Friends cameo”. You could even parlay it with which Friend it would be.
  • One of the fun things about being a sports fan is getting to wonder things like “Do you suppose a Los Angeles Clipper dancer feels secretly jealous of Laker Girls?” and do members of the Long Beach State baseball team say ‘Where is your honor, Dirtbag?’ to each other all the time?”
  • I don’t know whether to laugh or cry when I watch Street Smarts.
  • If you’ve never played Final Fantasy X, skip this one: blitzball should be made into a game of its own.
  • I’ve really missed having a bicycle.
  • So, am I the only one who’s really looking forward to the debut of I Love the ’90’s? I haven’t been this excited about a TV show in a while.
  • Ricky informed me that this page has more hits than my fight song site over the past few days. Those who come saw a mostly blank front page. I’m not sure what to think of this.
  • Another sign that Kelly’s part of the family…every time my mom gets elephant stuff for the house, she looks for a gator to complement.
  • 15 years past due: my parents are looking at getting a pool and a hot tub. Where was this during my formative teen years?
  • I haven’t played golf in so long…I want to use Frankenclub again!